Storytime Sunday, 11/11/12: Nanonotes from the front #2 or let your writing be haunted

Dear Friends of the Unreal —

As NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty warns in his book, week #2 is tough. For those of us who have trouble with plot, week #2 feels plodding, and uncomfortable, and at this point just a tad strange.

This morning I found myself haunted by books I’ve loved and characters I admire. By stories I wish I’d told myself, and by ideas I had in rough drafts of other stories but that I’ve had to abandon.  The return of the repressed — so touted by Sigmund Freud — seemed to be occurring.

What to do?

Allow it.  See where it goes.

I figured that in this morass of zombies something alive must lurk.  And just as I decided this, a dead writer appeared on the doorstep of the project.

I’ve let him in, hoping — to paraphrase  the Swedish horror movie — that he’s the right one.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Then uncross them, and continue writing.

4 thoughts on “Storytime Sunday, 11/11/12: Nanonotes from the front #2 or let your writing be haunted

  1. After Joe is done with that dead writer, who may or may not be spending time with him even now, could y’all send him my way? Keep writing. x0 N2

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